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Medicine  in  the 
Colonies 


By   William  Scott  Wadsworth,  M.  D. 


A  Paper  read  before  the 


Pennsylvania  Society  of  the 
Order  of  the  Founders  and  Patriots  of  America 


January  14th,  1910 


M  e  d  i  ci  ft  e    in    the    Colonies 

By    William    Scott    Wadsworth,    M.    D. 


A         Paper        Read         before        the 

Pennsylvania     Society    of    the    Order     of 
the    Founders    and    Patriots    of    America 


JANUARY 

THE     FOURTEENTH 

NINETEEN 

HUNDRED      AND      TEN 

Officers  and  Councillors  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Society 


Officers,    1910 

Governor 
Prof.  Herman  V.  Ames,  No.  210  South  Thirty-Seventh  St.,  Phila. 

Deputy-Governor. 
Harris  Elric  Sproat,  Westtown,  Pa. 

Chaplain 
Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Wadsworth,  Jr.,  No.  2038  Spring  Garden  St.,  Phila. 

Secretary 

Theodore   Anthony  Van   Dyke,   Jr.,   Union  League  Club,    Phila. 

Treasurer 
Elbert  Augustus  Corbin,  Jr.,  No.  542  Land  Title  Building,  Phila. 

State  Attorney 
John  Chambers  Hinckley,   Witherspoon  Building,   Phila. 

Registrar 
George  Edward  Scranton,  Witherspoon  Building,  Phila. 

Genealogist 
George  Linden  Cutler,  No.  519  East  Broad  St.,  Chester,  Pa. 

Historian 
Charles  Lester  Leonard,   M.    D.,    No.    112  S.   Twentieth  St.,    Phila. 


Councillors 

1910 

Louis  Samuel  Fiske,  No.  2042  Locust  St.,  Phila. 

Lewis  Converse  Lillie,  No.  328  Chestnut  St.,  Phila. 
Edward  Lang  Perkins,  No.  131  S.  Fourth  St.,  Phila. 

191O-I91I 

O.  LaForrest  Perry,  No.  3717  Baring  St.,  Phila. 

CoL.  Charles  Allen  Converse,  No.  500  N.  Broad  St.,  Phila. 

Eugene  Larue  Vansant,  M.  D.,  No.  1929  Chestnut  St.,  Phila. 

I9IO-I9II-I912 

Charles  WurTS  Sparhawk,  No.  400  Chestnut  St.,  Phila. 

Charles  Field  Haseltine,  No.  1822  Chestnut  St.,  Phila. 

William  Scott  Wadsworth,  M.  D.,  The  Normandie,  Phila. 


CO 


Medicine  in  the 
Colonies 


HAVE  a  large  topic.  I  hope  I  shall  not  so  dis- 
tress you  this  evening  as  to  give  you  a  full  real- 
ization of  just  how  large  it  is.  Surely  it  is  large 
enough  without  extending  it,  but  how  can  we 
come  to  a  just  understanding  of  what  we  find 
happening  during  those  170  years  unless  we  extend  it  even 
more  so  as  to  grasp  the  conditions  elsewhere  which  affect- 
ed most  vitally  the  history  of  the  Colonies. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  17th  Century,  civilization  had  not 
gotten  a  very  firm  hold,  outside  of  the  Latin  countries,  in  Europe. 
The  Arts  and  Sciences  were  beginning  to  take  root  in  Holland. 
Freedom  of  mind  was  just  beginning  to  exist  following  the 
struggles  of  the  Reformation.  The  mental  stagnation  of  the 
late  Middle  Ages  was  being  swept  away,  good  things  and  bad 
things  all  were  being  changed.  The  monopoly  of  learning  by 
the  priests  and  monks  had  been  broken,  the  honorable  "trust 
busters"  had  been  at  work  and  there  was  chaos.  The  whole 
of  northern  Europe  was  in  turmoil.  Henry  VUI  had  granted 
charters  to  the  universities  of  Britain  to  teach  medicine,  but 
who  was  ready  to  teach  it?  England  was  even  more  provincial 
then  than  now. 

It  was  years  before  medicine  was  even  a  farce  at  the  English 
Universities.  Edinburgh  gave  its  first  medical  degree  in 
course  in  the  18th  century.  Almost  any  second  grade  High 
School  in  America  to-day  is  better  fitted  to  grant  degrees  in 
medicine  than  were  the  schools  of  Great  Britain  in  1600. 

Henry  VHI  separated  the  apothecaries  from  the  grocers 
and  the  guilds  in  London  were  rapidly  taking  new  form  and 
character,  but  the  state  of  the  arts  and  sciences  in  the  country 
districts  was  worse  than  barbarous.  The  mass  of  English 
despised  the  learning  of  the  Latin  races  and  feared  it  because 


it  was  so  firmly  associated  with  the  ItaHan  church.  Holland 
alone  had  any  glimmerings  of  what  was  to  come  in  medicine, 
and  as  yet  only  the  faintest  glimmerings. 

It  is  not  to  be  lA^ondered  at  then,  that  no  very  important 
place  was  made  for  medicine  in  the  first  plans  for  the  Colonies. 
That  the  condition  in  the  Colonies  got  worse  while  the  rest  of 
the  world  progressed  needs  careful  thought,  and  is  no  simple 
problem. 

The  settlement  in  Virginia,  of  w^hich  Captain  John  Smith 
writes,  had  surgeons  and  a  moderate  store  of  remedies,  and  Smith 
speaks  gratefully  of  his  doctor's  skill,  but  there  appears  to 
be  little  backing  for  medicine  in  such  an  aggregate  of  silly,  greedy 
nondescripts  as  Smith  describes,  and  we  are  not  surprised  that 
medicine  came  to  the  sorry  state  in  which  we  find  it  later  on. 

The  adventurers  in  the  various  Companies  that  were 
formed  to  promote  settlements  had  a  mild  realization  of  the 
need  of  surgeons  to  care  for  the  settlers,  who  were  to  make 
profits  for  them. 

The  Hollandish  settlers  were  supplied  with  hired  surgeons 
of  the  barber  surgeon  type,  at  least  for  a  while,  but  they  were 
not  long  encouraged  and  were  not  of  a  type  to  enlarge  their 
field  of  usefullness,  and  the  supply  from  Holland  was  not  very 
well  maintained.  The  Pilgrims,  while  in  Holland,  must  have 
gained  something  of  an  appreciation  of  medicine  from  their 
neighbors,  and  we  find  Dr.  Fuller  going  to  Plymouth,  and 
evidently  he  was  a  man  of  character  and  wisdom  though 
probably  of  only  modest  medical  attainments. 

We  find  him  loaned  to  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  to 
help  them  during  an  epidemic  and  staying  at  the  house  of  the 
Governor  during  the  winter,  and  have  reason  to  believe  his 
advice  was  sought  in  forming  plans  for  the  establishment  of 
the  church  there. 

Later  on  we  hear  of  a  contract  surgeon  coming  over  from 
England,  and  in  his  sadness,  he  wrote  the  truth  home  to 
England  about  the  Colony ;  as  a  result  he  had  a  terrible  time.  In 
fact  that  little  affair  shows  that  the  unmeasured  assurance, 
which  is  so  characteristic  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony, 
developed  very  early,  and  went  to  ludicrous  extremes  even  then. 
The  impulse  of  religious  fervor  and  freedom  had  taken 


hold  on  these  pilgrim  planters,  and  the  God  of  battle  hardened 
their  hearts  that  they  go  forward,  through  a  very  terrible  wild- 
erness, by  a  very  long  wandering,  eschevving  the  arts  of  civili- 
zation with  much  fear  and  firmness.  What  they  did  accomplish 
is  a  very  glorious  thing.  I  would  be  sad  indeed,  if  what  I  have 
to  say  about  what  they  did  not  do,  caused  any  misconcep- 
tion about  my  high  appreciation  of  what  they  did  accomplish. 

They  founded  and  maintained  Harvard  College,  which  has 
so  often  led  all  who  were  capable  of  being  led  in  educational 
matters,  but  they  waited  150  3-ears  before  they  reluctantly 
consented  to  follow  the  rest  of  the  world  in  the  matter  of  medi- 
cal education. 

I  found  it  hard  to  believe,  as  others  no  doubt  will, 
that  men  who  were  nominally  Christians,  followers  of  the  Great 
Physician,  who  said  to  those  who  came  asking  proof  of  his 
mission,  "the  blind  receive  their  sight,  the  lame  walk,  and  the 
deaf  hear,  and  the  poor  have  the  Gospel  preached  to  them," 
that  these  men  could  have  forsaken  the  mercy  of  God  and  turned 
toward  the  hardness  of  Sinai.  Clearly  they  sought  freedom,  but 
the  methods  of  priestcraft  were  not  easy  to  shake  off 
and  they  were  long  finding  it.  They  gained  a  mighty  power 
in  the  finding,  but  they  left  civilization  behind,  even  as  the 
Benai  Israel  had  forsaken  the  arts  and  wisdom  of   Egypt. 

The  story  of  medicine  in  the  Colonies,  outside  of  Penn- 
sylvania, is  not  attractive.  Virginia  in  1631  passed  laws 
regulating  the  clergy  rather  severely,  and  in  1639  passed  laws 
restraining  physicians  and  surgeons.  These  laws  indicate  that 
greed  was  not  confined  to  the  planters  and  adventurers  but 
pervaded  the  professions.  At  later  dates  they  elaborated  these 
restraints  in  a  way  that  shows  clearly  that  there  was  a  real 
condition  quite  unpleasant  to  contemplate.  Virginia  early 
sought  to  have  an  educational  system  and  a  college  largely 
for  the  benefit  of  the  clergy,  in  fact  their  efforts  antedate  those 
in  Massachusetts,  but  owing  to  various  setbacks,  it  was  not 
till  1693  that  the  Attorney  General  for  William  and  Mary 
became  famous  for  remarking  to  the  Rev.  Agent,  "Souls!  damn 
their  souls,  let  them  make  tobacco."  This  school  became 
rich  in  goods  and  being  located  in  the  capitol  of  the  Colony 
was  not  forgotten  by  the  legislature,  and  it  also  became  a  social 
feature  as  well,  but  never  a  medical  school. 


The  Church  of  England  had  not  even  then  become  free 
from  the  thraldom  of  priestcraft. 

Little  hope  for  the  healing  art  was  to  be  found  in  the  less 
wealthy  Colonies,  where  mistaken  methods  of  administration 
prevented  that  material  progress  that  could  furnish  enough 
money  to  send  young  men  to  Europe  to  study,  or  entice  European 
young  men  to  venture  on  a  country  practice,  when  laws  and 
conditibns  were  against  them. 

Virginia  in  1736  passed  a  law  allowing  double  fees  to  grad- 
uates of  Universities,  but  she  was  then  a  wealthy  and  populous 
colony,  and  could  have  supported  a  medical  school. 

The  Duke  of  York  issued  laws  to  his  grants  based  on  old 
English  laws,  in  which  "physicians  and  chyrurgeons  and  mid- 
wives"  should  do  no  violence  without  due  consent  of  the  patient 
but  Massachusetts  had,  apparently  with  joy,  already  in  1649 
adopted   the   following   pleasing   law:- 

"For  as  much  as  the  law  of  God  allows  no  man  to  impair 
the  life  or  limb  of  any  person,  hut  in  a  judicial  way.  It  is  there- 
fore ordered,  that  no  person  or  persons  whatsoever,  emplo^^ed 
at  any  time  about  the  bodyes  of  men,  women  or  children,  for  the 
preser^^ation  of  life  or  health  as  chyrurgeons,  midwives,  phy- 
sicians or  others,  shall  presume  to  exercise  or  put  forth  any  act, 
contrary  to  the  known  approved  rules  of  art  in  each  mystery  or 
occupation,  nor  exercise  any  force,  violence,  or  cruelty  upon 
or  toward  the  bodyes  of  any,  whether  young  or  old,  nor  in  the  most 
difficult  and  desperate  cases,  without  the  advice  or  consent  of 
such  as  are  skillful  in  the  same  art  (if  such  ma}'  be  had)  or  at 
least  of  some  of  the  wisest  and  gravest  then  present,  and  consent 
of  the  patient  if  they  be  mentis  compotes,  much  less  contrary 
to  such  advice  and  consent,  upon  such  severe  punishment  as  the 
nature  of  the  fact  may  deserve. 

"Which  law,  nevertheless,  is  not  intended  to  discourage  any 
from  all  lawful  use  of  their  skill,  but  rather  to  encourage  and 
direct  them  in  the  right  use  of  and  to  inhibit  and  restrain  the 
presumtuous  arrogancy  of  such  as  through  p residence  of  their 
own  skill  or  any  other  sinister  respects,  dare  boldly  attempt  to 
exercise  any  violence  upon  or  toward  the  bodyes  of  young  or  old, 
one  or  other,  to  the  prejudice  or  hazard  of  life  or  limb  of  man, 
woman  or  child." 

Imagine  any  skillful  surgeon  being  bound  to  listen  to  the 


pompous  dictum  of  utterly  uneducated  farmer  select  men  or 
still  more  dangerous  clerical  quacks,  like  Cotton  Mather  as 
to  what  operation  to  perform. 

The  horror  of  the  thing  is  not  to  be  smothed  over  by  soph- 
istries. Does  it  not  grow  clearer  why  medicine  in  Massachusetts 
Colony  lagged  back  so  far  behind?  Why  even  with  Harvard 
in  their  midst,  there  was  no  medical  education  until  after  the 
Revolutionary  War,  even  then  it  was  hardly  a  decent  pretence, 
and  carried  on  by  men  wholly  unfitted  by  medical  training  to 
conduct  a  medical  school,  with  the  results  to  be  expected :  44 
graduates  in  twenty  years,  only  one  of  note. 

A  professorship  was  founded  by  a  doctor  and  his  family ; 
later  three  fifths  of  the  income  was  appropriated  by  the  college. 
Such  were  the  enlightened  methods  used  toward  medicine  in 
Massachusetts.  As  I  read  the  laws  and  statutes  of  IMassachu- 
setts  I  see  how  medicine  was  stultified,  as  it  always 
must  be  when  the  arrogance  of  classes  that  have  assumed 
dominance  are  allowed  to  make  their  little  knowledge  a  very 
dangerous  thing  in  preventing  the  progress  of  medical  work 
for   the   community. 

Connecticut  gave  promise  of  progress  in  spite  of  the 
clerical  domination  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  if  she 
had  been  more  advantageously  situated  for  commerce  and 
the  accumulation  of  wealth,  she  would  have  reached  a  better 
place  in  medicine.  In  all  communities  where  the  population 
was  separated,  the  support  of  learning,  the  church  and  medic 'ne 
was  a  burden,  and  not  infrequently  it  was  decidedly  a  good 
thing  to  have  all  these  functions  united  in  one  person,  provided 
of  course,  that  the  learning  consisted  of  something  more  than 
a  reveling  in  the  lacivious  doings  of  the  deified  beings  of  high 
Olympus  and  the  religion  of  more  than  cursings  and  male- 
dictions with  side  lights  on  the  life  and  methods  of  the  devil 
and  medicine  was  something  more  than  the  monkish  vulgari- 
ties of  the  Middle  Ages.  Connecticut  medical  men  early  sought 
to  restrict  the  practice  of  medicine,  at  least  to  a  small  degree, 
to  prevent  the  reckless  quacker}^  that  was  rampant  all  around 
her,  but  no  very  great  success  crowned  their  early  efforts.  It 
is  to  her  credit  that  the  right  spirit  was  working  before  the  days 
of  the  Revolution.  I  suppose  we  must  give  Governor  Winthrop 
credit  for  some  share  in  the  views  of  medicine  held  in  the  colony 


for  he  was  a  man  of  no  small  ability  and  he  practiced  medicine 
successfully  and  the  fact  that  the  Governor  and  leader  of  the 
colony  was  in  active  practice  lent  dignity  to  the  art,  which 
among  the  English  of  that  day  was  sadly  neglected,  as  in  fact 
were  most  of  the  other  fine  arts. 

New  Hampshire  had  a  curiously  medicated  history  from 
its  inception.  Doctors  in  the  old  country  appear  to  have 
been  interested  in  her  settlement  and  of  all  medical  characters 
in  Colonial  history  Dr.  Barefoot  is  one  of  the  most  striking, 
a  constant  thorn  in  the  sides  of  the  'Xords  Brethren  of  Boston." 
He  practiced  medicine  and  sharp  poHtics  along  the  north  shore, 
and  was  probably  very  helpful  in  freeing  New  Hampshire  from 
the  bondage  of  Massachusetts  and  doubtless  did  many  other 
wicked  things.  He  had  a  sense  of  humor  and  cursed  dreadful 
oaths. 

Portsmouth  had  her  doctors,  who  were  men  of  affairs  as 
well,  during  her  whole  Colonial  period,  and  the  state  has  had 
medical  men  as  Governors,  Judges  and  legislators.  When 
she  did  develop  a  medical  school,  the  fourth  one  in  the  country', 
she  backed  it  so  well  that  it  became  the  second  in  importance 
for    a    considerable    time. 

Rhode  Island  sought  to  make  some  medical  progress  and 
had  her  honorable  doctors,  some  of  whom  were  high  in  the 
councils,  but  she  could  not  command  sufficient  resources  to 
become  a  medical  centre,  though  her  attitude  toward  medicine 
has  in  the  main  been  good. 

Vermont  was  too  far  from  the  coast  to  be  in  any  way  a 
metropolitan  centre  during  the  Colonial  period,  and  as  a  result 
her  medical  history  is  little  more  than  a  record  of  the  local 
doctors. 

Maine  stayed  too  long  under  the  dominance  of  Massachu- 
setts. 

New  York  had  been  for  many  years  under  the  States 
General  of  Holland,  but  had  rather  less  than  nothing  when 
they  gave  up  the  territory  to  the  English.  Accustomed 
to  look  for  Clergy,  Teachers  and  Doctors  to  Holland,  though 
the  supply  of  these  was  never  satisfactory,  she  found  it  very 
hard  to  readjust  herself  at  first  to  the  change,  and  but  for  im- 
portations from  Europe  and  the  other  Colonies  would  have 
fared  very  badly  indeed. 

8 


I  would  not  want  to  be  misunderstood  about  the  system 
in  the  Dutch  Colonies;  for  the  times  in  which  it  was  planned, 
it  was  remarkable,  it  was  by  far  the  best  one  in  America.  It 
depended  too  much  on  Holland,  and  was  not  calculated  for 
what  was  to  take  place,  and  when  discontinued,  left  the  colonies 
helpless. 

In  1656  the  Burgomaster  of  New  Amsterdam,  under  the 
express  promise  that  "the  wounded  be  properly  taken  care  of 
by  means  of  good  surgeons,  and  if  any  person  in  the  employment 
of  the  City  and  in  the  execution  of  their  commands,  office 
or  service,  happened  to  be  maimed,  lamed  or  otherwise  be 
deprived  of  health,  they  shall  be  reimbursed."  Then  follows  a 
scale  of  accident  insurance,  and  further,  "the  barbers  whether 
on  board  a  ship  or  ships  or  on  land  shall  be  bound  to  give  their 
services  cheerfully,  and  to  use  all  diligence  to  restore  the  patients 
to  health,  without  receiving  any  compensation  except  their 
monthly  pay." 

I  assure  you  this  is  pleasanter  reading  than  the  records  of 
the  Acts  and  Resolves  of  Massachusetts,  nevertheless  it 
pauperized  the  community  in  matters  medical,  and  in  the  end 
lowered  the  tone  of  medicine  in  the  Colony. 

The  stage  following  this  is  too  unpleasant  to  go  into; 
quackery  and  commercialism  ran  riot,  and  her  medicine  has 
staggered  under  these  ever  since.  Most  of  her  notable  medical 
men  during  the  Colonial  period  were  importations. 

After  the  middle  of  the  18th  century  the  Colony  began 
to  show  a  more  rational  attitude  toward  medicine, 
possibly  the  French  and  Indian  wars  had  an  influence  here  as 
elsewhere,  and  as  an  indication  we  find  a  law  passed  in  1760 
against  quacks,  restricting  the  practice  of  Physick  and  Surgery 
to  those  who  pass  an  examination  and  are  approved. 
At  this  time  Dr.  Colden  was  high  in  the  council  and  evidently 
a  power  in  the  Colony,  being  of  mature  years,  though  still 
virile;  in  favor  with  the  English  government  and  a  man  of 
education  and  experience,  having  graduated  from  Edinburgh 
and  practiced  in  Philadelphia;  a  scientist  and  a  founder  of 
the  American  Philosophical  Society ;  a  friend  of  Franklin  and  a 
correspondent  of  Linnaeus ;  active  in  affairs  and  publicly  advocat- 
ing sanitary  reforms,  which  were  adopted ;  said  to  have  advocated 
a  medical  school  while  in  Philadelphia  before  1718,  also  said 


'  to  have  helped  in  the  founding  of  the  hospital  in  New  York 
and  aiding  in  charities  and  encouraging  education ;  well  hated  by 
his  enemies  (an  excellent  sign,)  altogether  one  of  the  great 
men  of  the  Colonial  period. 

New  York  had  the  second  medical  school  in  the  country, 
but  it  had  a  hard  time  during  its  first  years,  and  exerted  little 
influence  in  Colonial  medicine.  Medicine  doing  more  for 
King's  College  than  it  did  for,  medicine  from  the  start.  Dr. 
James  Jay  represented  the  College  in  England,  and  solicited 
funds  before  the  Medical  School  was  begun. 

New  Jersey  belongs  medically  in  three  groups. 

East  New  Jersey  with  its  Connecticut  settlement  at  New- 
ark and  its  English,  or  New  York  settlement  at  Elizabeth  (town) 
resembled  those  Colonies. 

West  New  Jersey  shares  with  Pennsylvania  many  things, 
including  the  influence  of  the  Medical  Metropolis.  Under 
Governor  Franklin  some  very  good  laws  v/ere  passed,  and 
some  very  good  doctors  practiced  in  various  parts  of  the  State, 
and  early  founded  a  Medical  Society. 

The  Scotch  influence  at  Princeton  aided  very  surely,  if  not 
directly,  in  helping  medicine  take  its  proper  place,  and  fur- 
nished many  men  of  note  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Delaware  was  practically  a  part  of  Pennsylyania. 

The  conditions  in  the  South  were  most  unfortunate;  here 
and  there  a  doctor  arose  above  the  country  practice,  some 
took  part  in  the  affairs  of  their  colonies,  but  none  did  anything 
for  medical  education.  The  Southern  states  however,  availed 
themselves  of  the  Philadelphia  medical  schools  from  the  start, 
and  showed  a  readiness  to  appreciate  and  follov/  Philadelphia 
medicine  that  was  far  more  creditable  than  the  spirit  shown 
in  some  other  Colonies.  The  immediate  results  were  appar- 
ent before  the  Revolution,  but  the  full  effect,  of  course,  came 
later,  when,  to  the  great  betterment  of  medicine  in  those  states, 
the  Philadelphia  medical  graduates  became  very  numerous. 

It  is  with  a  distinct  sense  of  relief  that  we  turn  to  the 
Colony  that  for  more  than  two  centuries  led  the  country,  if  in- 
deed it  does  not  still  lead  in  medicine.  From  the  first,  medi- 
cine was  appreciated,  and  the  practice  of  the  art  encouraged 
in  Pennsylvania. 


lO 


The  Swedes  had  surgeons,  and  they  were  apparently  quite 
as  notable  as  their  fellovv-countr}^men  whom  they  served. 

The  Hollanders  had  their  surgeons ;  as  in  New  Amsterdam 
these  had  little  or  no  influence  on  Colonial  medicine. 

The  Germans  could  not  be  expected  to  be  in  advance  of 
the  country  from  which  they  came,  which  at  that  time  was 
medically  worse  than  barbarous.  The  descendants  of  these 
settlers  became  eminent  under  the  influence  and  teaching  of 
the  Cosmopolitan  school  of  medicine  that  arose  later. 

The  influence  of  Sweden  later  on,  became  quite  marked  by 
reason  of  the  work  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  for  the  University 
of  Upsala  and  by  the  influence  of  Linnaeus. 

The  Philadelphia  botanist  were  among  his  correspondents 
and  this  undoubtedly  aided  materially  in  making  this  city  the 
botanical  center  of  the  country  for  years,  from  which  arose  its 
absolute  pre-eminence  in  Medical  Botany  and  therapeutics 
which  has  scarcely  yet  been  challenged. 

Holland  shared  in  this  in  a  double  \vay,  by  having  given 
Linnaeus  his  medical  degree  and  great  assistance  in  his  studies 
and  labors.  The  doctors  of  Sweden  and  Holland  made  his 
career  possible,  and  he  paid  his  debts  fully. 

Holland,  by  her  medical  botanists  and  by  her  rapid  prog- 
ress in  the  arts  and  sciences  of  medicine,  so  recently  brought 
from  Italy,  became  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  formation 
of  medicine  in  Scotland  and  America. 

An  extended  study  of  the  early  history  of  medicine  in 
America  shows  clearly  that  Philadelphia  medicine  depended 
on  a  great  man}^  things  working  together.  William  Penn 
brought  with  him  two  capable  medical  men,  both  Welsh,  both 
given  to  public  affairs  and  the  practice  of  medicine.  In  this  as  in 
other  things  he  showed  great  breadth  of  mind  and  true  human- 
ity, and  the  tremendous  import  of  this  act  should  not  be  lightly 
overlooked. 

From  that  day  to  this  the  influence  of  the  Welsh  in  medi- 
cine has  deen  strong — this  does  not  appear  to  be  generally 
appreciated.  From  that  day  to  this  Philadelphia  has  never 
lacked  great  doctors. 

The  influence  of  the  French  is  often  difficult  to  trace  with 
assurance,  but  it  certainly  is  considerable.  The  immigrants 
furnished  something  to  the  mental  atmosphere  and  now  and 


II 


then  a  distinct  contribution  to  medicine  directly.  It  is  probable 
that  the  French  surgeons  had  an  influence  during  the  Revolution. 

Very  important  are  the  persistent  and  powerful  Scotch- 
men who  occasionally  appeared,  though  they  almost  always 
had  a  bit  too  much  of  egotism,  which  frequently  marred  their 
work.  This  same  egotism  has  caused  a  greatly  exaggerated 
valuation  of  the  Scotch  influence  in  Philadelphia  medicine  to 
become  commonly  accepted. 

The  greatest  factor  is  undoubtedly  the  sound,  sane  English 
character  of  the  folks  among  whom  these  doctors  practiced, 
mellowed  by  a  religion  of  human  friendliness.  As  a  result, 
the  Philadelphia  profession  has  had  a  greater  measure  of  har- 
mony than  any  other  in  the  country,  and  has  therefore,  been  able 
to  keep  ahead  of  the  other  centers.  The  history  of  medicine 
in  Philadelphia  is  the  history  of  the  best  in  America,  every- 
thing that  was  great  was  very  earty  adopted  and  the  story  is 
far  too  large  for  this  little  review. 

The  chauvenistic  orators  of  other  places  joyfully  cry  aloud 
over  a  first  operation,  or  a  small  fad  earliest  taken  up,  but  those 
who  were  to  be  the  giants  of  the  profession  came  to  Philadel- 
phia to  study  and  many  stayed  here  to  help  and  to  be  helped 
by  the  medical  life  of  the  city. 

The  first  hospitals  and  medical  school,  the  first  hospital 
clinics,  the  first  medical  museum,  the  first  medical  library,  the 
first  progress  in  care  of  prisoners  and  insane.  These  are  enough 
firsts,  but  they  are  all  of  Colonial  times  and  often  half  a  century 
passed  before  other  colonies  followed. 

The  great  body  of  the  profession  was  immeasurably 
ahead  as  a  whole  of  anything  to  be  found  in  America  and  in 
some  things  ahead  of  Europe.  What  I  say  is  not  orator>'^  but 
fact  for  which  I  can  cite  hundreds  of  references  that  are  con- 
clusive. A  series  of  pictures  of  the  medicine  of  the  colonies 
would  be  too  markedly  incomplete  it  we  did  not  touch  at  least 
a  few  of  the  many  details.  The  medicines  used  in  those  days 
were  food  for  thought  if  not  for  the  body.  Every  man  had  his 
favorites  and  in  turn  their  pupils  were  apt  to  follow  the  pecu- 
liar therapeutics  of  the  teacher  who  had  originally  learned  of 
several  masters  abroad.  The  tendency  was  naturally  to  become 
narrower  with  each  generation.  Drugs  were  not  specially  easy 
to  get  nor  was  it  a  joy  to  gather  the  herbs  from  places  where 


12 


they  were  hard  to  find  and  were  grown  with  difficulty.     Drug- 
gists were  few  and  mostly  very  bad,  even  in  the  larger  towns. 

Apprentices  had  a  charming  time  pounding  herbs,  grinding 
ointments  and  mixing  potions,  not  to  mention  preparing 
plasters,  clysters  and  pills.  Possibly  the  results  were  not 
pleasant.  I  suspect  the  hairs  of  the  doctor's  nag  very  often 
took  part  in  the  cures,  for  bottles  and  boxes  were  scarce  in 
those  days  and  saddlebags  and  pockets  are  not  always  very 
clean. 

Mixtures  with  honey  and  molasses  often  took  the  place  of 
clean  syrups.  Nauseous  vinegars  had  great  vogue;  brimstone, 
salts,  calomel  and  antimony  were  in  great  demand.  Dried 
herbs  for  teas  and  infusions  were  kept  in  the  lofts  of  houses  and 
country  stores.  Barks  from  the  oak,  wild  cherry  and  sassafras 
worked  overtime  then.  Rum  and  spirits  took  up  the  general  un- 
pleasant qualities  of  the  stronger  and  rarer  drugs.  Opium  and 
bark  from  Peru  were  given  in  no  light  doses  when  they  could 
be  had.  IMadeira  wine  was  a  great  luxury  in  the  pharmacy, 
and  gold  foil  was  really  aristocratic,  no  matter  what  filth  it 
covered.  Mineral  springs  were  eagerly  sought  after  and  the 
stories  about  them  are  too  good  to  keep  and  too  bad  to  tell. 
A  truly  grand  lot  of  purges,  emetics,  plasters,  poultices  and 
mixtures  of  all  sorts  was  to  be  had  from  one  end  of  the  land  to 
the  other.  The  lancet  bled  them  all.  Occasionally  the  lust  of 
poly -pharmacy  was  not  curbed  and  as  many  as  seventy-five  stuffs 
were  tumbled  together  into  horrible  boluses. 

Sometimes  a  fine  pharmaceutical  phrensy;  sometimes  a 
Scotch  philosophy,  oftener  a  pure  unmitigated  quackery 
controlled  these  wonderful  compounds;  with  no  instruction 
in  anatomy  or  physiolgy,  with  no  medical  journals,  with 
few  books,  very  apt  to  be  in  Latin,  with  almanacs  full  of  cure- 
alls  and  specifics  and  enough  old  wives  remedies  to  put  an  end  to 
the  whole  human  race. 

Now  and  then  a  clerical  follower  of  the  writers  of  the 
Middle  Ages  who  put  in  classic  Latin  what  was  too  foul  for 
even  modem  French,  would  find  something  sufficiently  filthy 
to  drive  out  the  evil  diseases  which  they  believed  were  like,  if 
not  very  devils.  Much  real  wisdom  was  found  among  the 
sturdy  fellows  who  rode  miles  through  rough  country  to  help 
a  rugged  folk  who  died  young  or  lived  to  be  quite  old.     It  is 

13 


surprising  to  see  how  many  of  the  noted  doctors  lived  beyond 
the  three  score  and  ten  years. 

How  they  did  cover  ground  in  those  days,  a  hundred  miles 
to  see  one  patient,  and  on  a  cart  horse  at  that.  Ten  miles  on 
foot  in  Philadelphia  was  no  unusual  thing,  even  to  the  great 
Rush,  and  in  any  weather;  carriages  were  not  common  even  in 
the  towns  and  very  rare  in  the  country.  Instruments  were 
usually  simple,  perhaps  bad  and  surely  hard  to  get. 

The  story  of  the  supplies  for  the  Continental  Army  is 
almost  increditable.  Dressings  were  scarce  and  valuable  in 
the  days  when  all  the  cloth  was  spun  at  home,  and  a  lot  of 
linen  was  a  dower  and  to  last  a  long  time. 

The  diseases  were  apt  to  be  severe  and  many  epidemics 
are  recorded,  fevers  were  common  and  serious;  small  pox 
was  most  deadly,  and  with  ship  and  yellow  fevers,  and  the  flux 
led  to  the  establishment  of  quarantines  in  nearly  all  the  col- 
onies. 

Some  of  the  laws  being  quite  wise,  and  some  being  pompous 
and  painful ;  liquor  vv-as  freely  used  in  any  form  obtainable  for 
medical  and  other  purposes.  Snuff  had  probably  more  in- 
fluence on  the  health  of  the  people  than  is  generally  realized 
at  present.  Tobacco  was  not  so  generally  used  as  now,  in  fact 
one  would  be  heavily  fined  if  found  smoking  on  the  streets 
of  certain  towns. 

Tea  was  said  to  cause  the  falling  out  of  the  teeth,  it  did 
cause  a  very  serious  falling  out  later  on.  Warming  pans  and 
feather  beds,  night  caps  and  wood  smoke  played  very  impor- 
tant roles  in  life  then.  Baths  were  religiously  avoided  in  winter. 
The  English  idea  that  to  wash  the  feet  in  January  was  a  par- 
ticularly vicious  way  of  tempting  Providence,  was  largely 
prevalent.  Exercise  was  to  be  had  in  great  plenty.  Fresh 
air  could  be  found  away  from  the  house.  Water  suggested 
transmigration,  with  strong  indications  of  the  last  incarnation 
having  been  a  cow.  Food,  anything  that  could  be  obtained. 
Clothing,  as  happened,  usually  fair,  but  now  and  then  breaking 
out  in  follies,  such  as  sore  throat  coaxers  called  mufflers. 

Probably  the  most  cruel  thing  to  contemplate  of  the  whole 
lot  was  the  midwife  business.  Doctors  may  have  slain  their 
thousands,  but  the  mid  wives  slew  their  tens  of  thousands. 
Avery  genuine  but  often  fatal  modesty  forbade  a  male  attendant 

14 


at  child  birth  and  often  in  other  sickness.  Many  a  poor  woman 
died  in  child  birth,  or  as  the  result  of  it  simply  because  no  help 
lay  in  a  lot  of  miserable  old  women  who  were  utterly  ignorant 
and  wholly  incompetent.  No  wonder  the  grave  yards  are  a 
joke  to  moderns  with  their  names  of  rows  of  wives.  It  was  no 
joke  to  the  poor  women.  The  conditions  in  India  and  China 
to-day  are  almost  as  bad  as  they  were  in  the  Colonies  before 
the  Philadelphia  doctors  introduced  the  teaching  of  midwifery. 
The  poor  had  a  miserable  time,  for  the  workhouses  outside  of 
Philadelphia  were  anything  but  decent. 

Dispensaries,  there  were  none.  Hospitals  in  Philadelphia 
and  New  York.     Boston  took  200  years,  nearly,  to  get  one. 

The  Penns3dvania  Hospital  stands  out  in  the  history  of 
America  as  a  bright  spot  in  drear}'-  darkness.  I  wish  I  had 
time  to  go  into  the  history  of  that  institution,  but  you  can 
find  it  written  by  our  late  secretary  and  beloved  associate, 
Dr.  Morton.  I  heartily  commend  his  book  to  your  attention. 
I  cannot  close  without  one  more  word  about  the  doctor. 

"The  brave  old  doctor, 
the  good  faulty  old  doctor, 
the  faithful   country  doctor" 

"His  bones  are  dust, 

his  lancet  rust, 

his  soul  is  with  the  Saints  we  trust" 

If  you  don't  know  him,  go  get  your  Bonnie  Briar  Bush 
down  and  read  about  Dr.  Mac  Laren  till  your  eyes  get  damp  ; 
you  will  be  better  men  for  it. 

The  world  was  better  because  such  men  lived  in  our  Col- 
onies and  I  am  glad  the  picture  of  such  has  been  done  by  a 
master  hand.  I  would  like  to  tell  you  of  the  lives  of  those  men, 
but  those  things  are  written.  I  have  striven  to  give  you  a 
medical  man's  insight  into  the  past  in  a  way  that  is  not  written. 
Lest  you  think  me  biased  about  the  theological  influence  in  the 
past,  let  me  quote  from  the  autocrat,  our  dear  spicy  doctor 
poet  "Medical  Science  is  destined  to  react  to  much  greater 
advantage  on  theology  of  the  future,  than  theology  has  acted 
on  medicine  in  the  past." 

15 


Note 

The  authorities  from  whom  information  was  obtained  would 
take  up  as  much  space  as  the  paper  itself.  Some  of  the  more 
interesting  reading  in  this  field  will  be  found  in  the  histories, 
catalogues  and  other  official  publications  of  the  Universities 
of  Europe  and  America  and  in  the  publications  of  the  U.  S. 
Gov.,  the  works  of  Paulson,  lyodge.  Wood,  Carson,  Rush,  Frank- 
lin, Colden,  J.  Smith,  Packard,  Wickes,  Grim,  Thatcher,  O. 
W.  Holmes,  Toner,  Fiske,  N.  Webster,  Watson,  Morton,  A. 
Ames,  Bowditch,  O'Calahan,  Sanborn,  De  Chastelleux,  Kohn, 
Harshberger,  Rosengarten,  Morris,  Schouler,  Bond,  Segur, 
Ramsey,  Morgan,  Davis,  Norris,  Westcott,  Levick,  Gross, 
Dulles,  Mumford,  Hammersley.  The  various  general  and  local 
histories  not  especially  named. 

The  original  laws,  reprints  and   codes   of  the  Colonies. 

Accounts  of  societies,  patriotic  and  social. 

Also  files  of  publications  of  historical  and  medical  societies 
for  addresses  and  papers. 

I  am  under  special  obligation  to  Mr.  Luther  E.  Hewitt, 
librarian  of  the  Law  Association  in  the  matter  of  the  laws  of  the 
^Colonies. 


i6 


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